The problem is, pitches at Edgbaston have a 'Reputation' because of that 1995 pitch v West Indies when the game was over before lunch on the 3rd day. That was a dangerous pitch and was 2-paced and ever since then, people who do not know much about anything let alone cricket, see m to think Edgbaston has green pitches and even Mike Brearley on the strength of that Test, then blamed the pitches there for Warwickshire winning championships even though I do not recall him being there under any capacity. If he looked at an attack that had Donald, Small, Munton, Brown, Reeve, Welch, etc, then he might have come to a different conclusion. The Headingley pitch when England beat West Indies in 2 days (2000?) didn't get the same degree of criticism. Whether or not Stokes got any say in this pitch, is debatable as groundsman hate being 'Told' to prepare a pitch of a certain kind. Edgbaston is like Headingley, you look up before tossing and take your chances. The pitches here over the years have been good and when winning the CC in 2021, our pitches were praised as every home game went into the last session of the final day. It might be that because the pitch in this Test hasn't broken up at all (Yet?), that people think it is dull but if you consider that we are not halfway through the game and the 3rd innings has started, it might produce a bit for the bowlers, Rain permitting.

I too heard that comment but England did not make Australia play at enough deliveries. The problem is, Stokes wanted a dry and bare surface with no grass. If you ask for that, you cannot complain if the ball does very little. The pitches at Edgbaston are not known for pace so what were the bowlers expecting. This being the case, then England should have no problem getting runs in the 2nd innings should they. If not, it could be a defeat as the rain that was forecast today by all accounts is not coming until later and there might still be enough time left for a result to happen.

A true Bear through and through.

Well, England's bowling looked insipid at times once the early glories had passed. Moeen only turned a few and went for a few but Anderson hardly beat the bat and Robinson looked like a very ordinary choice. Mark Wood must wonder why he wasn't in instead of the samey bowlers that were on show. If Australia get a lead of 100+, we will see if people look differently on Stokes' reckless declaration.

'Strange' or stupid, only by tomorrow will we know. England were only ever going to get 4 overs in so why bother to declare. England might have gone into day 2 with 440 on the board and who knows, only 8, maybe 9 down. We have handed the initiative to Australia if they get close or beyond the England total. Stokes is trying to be too clever and I hope I am proved wrong.

We have to play Surrey at The Oval in September and if they haven't already run away with the title by then, we will have to win it somehow. Never thought Kent's bowling was very good when they played us and on a flat pitch they must look very poor and makes you wonder how they never made many in the first innings.

Looks as though this could be a horrible day for us. Surrey are just 70 away from a big win and if we do not get these wickets soon, an even bigger gap opens up at the top.

Confident of victory which would be spoilt by a Surrey win. You get the feeling that Kent could wilt in the heat but hope not.

Have faith Tayls79, Surrey have been out-played and showed that they are not invincible as some think but I know what you mean about a run chase in the 4th innings. Without any more rain I think we will win but a problem must be to enforce the follow-on or not. If it feels right to bowl, carry on and enforce it. All depends on what Notts get. If they are 200 allout, why bat again with a 370+ lead.

We are scoring quicker and I doubt it has anything to do with wickets lost. Even when we were not many wickets down, the scoring was slow and made us all wonder why this was so and even Hain on these pages was accused of taking too long to get going.

91-1, we'll take that. Might be a green pitch but the outfield looks lightning fast so we must cash in here and get a big total.

I played it back many times and paused it on impact with the pads and I would have gone with the batsman. Yes, we gave away plenty of wickets, such, that my comments if we lost were going to be along the lines of Northants not needing any catching practice during fielding drills as we gave them plenty. Also, it is strange to get bowled out when batting first, but not bowling out the other side whilst still winning the game.

Still hard to see us winning after our innings but that's what happens sometimes. I remember us defending 142 to beat Worcestershire once and a slightly higher total to beat Yorkshire but that must be one of the best defences of a small total in the T20. Spinners 8-70 from 16 overs. Also, just looked again at the Mousley wicket and as an LBW it looks very dodgy.

It was strange yesterday when one of the wickets fell, all the other fielders went into the outfield to celebrate a catch/catcher but Miles stayed in his fielding position on the boundary just watching and not moving an inch.

Hard to believe what we have just seen. The bloke in front of me said, "Maybe it's a crap wicket and we'll get something out of it too". Spot on sir. Was it the same wicket as the on used on Wednesday? The ball that Maxwell got seemed to stop on him which made it look like a poor shot. Perhaps that is the key now, produce wickets that are slow and turn and have 4 spinners in the side. It makes Hain's innings (Top score yet again) look even better and yet he never had the chance to try and cut loose as he had to try and bat to the end. We really needed this but the group is still wide open.

Well, we did the right thing in batting first but Hain was the only reason we got a good score and from then, we should have been able to defend it. They were winning it easily but a few tight overs saw it rise to 14-15 per over. The persistence with Briggs was strange rather than mixing it up and even giving Maxwell a bowl but Woakes was not on song and it seemed as though every ball that was slightly off, was carted for 6. We did not score enough boundaries in the first 10 overs and I have no idea how we got 203 even with Hain's brilliance. I would not have seen us losing twice to a poor side (I will be chastised no doubt for this) like Derbyshire once let alone twice and the group is now so tight we might not even end up qualifying.

Oh! Dear.

If England did sound out Ali, then it is a backward step as he said he was not going to go back on his decision to not play Tests, he has no form whatsoever in first-class cricket as he probably hasn't bowled with a red ball in years and his reluctance to even bowl in the T20 games, shows where his game is. Also, if he isn't even making any runs, he is a passenger as soon as he is picked and from what I have seen if him in the T20 Blast, he doesn't appear to be worth a place at county level. Even picking Rehan Ahmed looks dangerous, 22 wickets in 11 first-class games will not make any Australian batsman shake with fear and from what I saw of his 5 wicket haul in Pakistan, he didn't turn many and their batsmen seemed to get out by just trying to hit him over the ropes. Only other option is, leave loads of grass on the pitches and make it look like Trent Bridge 1981 and forget a spinner.

Moeen Ali seems to be in Grant Elliott mode, "Oo, pitch looks good, nice blue sky and ideal for batting. Aaaah, we'll have a bowl". Madness. If we don't end up in a great state in this group, the management need to come up with a better plan. We have made 200+ on so many occasions whilst batting first last season and this and yet you wonder if Moeen has actually done any homework on this and looked at stats. Stats do not tell the whole story of a team but some stats stare you in the face and I am afraid this whole T20 group could get out of hand if we do not realise our strengths and the captain must know this or is not much use as a captain.

Cannot think of any bowler on their side who would get into ours and some bad shot selection made them look good. A bad result tomorrow and the group will be wide open. Yates being dropped was ridiculous and if Ali is going to replace him but not bowl either then he has to make some runs to justify being in the side in the first place.